Crystals From Within by Emberdawn and her awesome friends! (the gingerbread man read aloud .TXT) 📖

"Come on, guys! Hurry up!" I called over my shoulder. Musilica and Lily were saying good-bye to the villagers, which is OK, but honestly, do you need 30 minutes to do so? Sure, I said my share of good-byes, too, but this is just overkill.

Finally (For Pete's sake) we shoulder our bags and set off southeast, Lily munching on a burger, kudos to McDonalds. As we walked on, the neat and large fields of crops slowly became more rough. Eventually, they turned into hills, and then into mountains. All the while, it slowly got hotter, as well. Soon enough, we were sweating and had to take a rest and and cool down. Unfortunately, the rocks and the ground were also very hot, so we had to keep going. We learned that when Musilica touched a nearby rock.

"Owwwww!" she shrieked, clutching at her hand. Experimentally, I reached down and poked a rock. It was really hot, like a pan that had just come out of an oven. I sucked on my finger, trying to cool it down.

"This heat is unnatural. Why would rocks be this hot?" I inquired. "Unless-"

Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting BOOM! And the ground shook, making us rise a couple feet into the air.

"-unless there was a volcano under us!" Lily finished for us, once we weren't defying gravity anymore.

"Hey!" Musilica yelled; making us, once again, jump.

"What?" I said.

"The prophecy!’One causing a spark'" she stated, waving her arms frantically. "The crystal could be in the volcano!"

"Yeah, great, Musilica," I raised my eyebrow. "How on earth are we supposed to crack the ground to get to the volcano, including the minor detail that we will burn up?"

"Hey...bring out the map-stone," Lily said to Musilica.

"OK..." she brought out the crystal and we all examined it. Nothing changed from before, but now it had three dots, one flame red, one cerulean blue and one aqua-turquoise...and they were right above our first checkpoint.

"It's right under us!" I yelled.

"Our fire suits!" we all said at the same time. We then pulled out three beige-colored suits, complete with a hood. These suits, as the name suggests, is impenetrable from fire, but will only last 2 hours maximum before it succumbs to the heat. Namely, it will melt off. While it lasts, it's like wrapping yourself in water. Now, for you indignant readers out there might think that the suits should last forever, but it depends on the heat, and since we're descending into a volcano...intense heat!

We dropped on all fours and tried to find an opening. After 15 minutes of searching, we were ready to give up, when Lily picked up a stone, and then, like a chain reaction, a hole, 20 feet wide on all sides appeared, and in a flash, Lily was gone.

"Whoa!" she screamed as she tumbled into the depths. Without a second thought we jumped after her. Thankfully we were wearing our fire suits. The hole was deeper than I had expected. We were falling for what seemed like hours. I heard Musilica groan from somewhere above me and finally, FINALLY, the chute leveled out, and we shot out one by one. I saw Lily at the bottom, thankfully unharmed, but recovering from the fall.

"Oof!" I grunted as I crashed into Lily. Musilica zoomed out and crashed into me.

Please wait as we sort ourselves out.

***

"All right," Musilica said as we got up. "Where do we go now?" The place where we fell was circular...and that was it. A single chamber, which was a dull gray.

"Well, I guess we'll be stuck here for now," Lily said. She started to get up, but winced. I realized that we all had some minor injuries.

"Here," I said. I quickly ground some dark green roots into a paste and gave it to Lily and Musilica. They spread it over their injuries, and under my instructions, the plants slowly healed up most of the wounds.

"Whew!" I panted. Musilica then took out her flute. 

"I'm gonna try to crack these walls to see if we can get out of here." With that, she played a note so high and piercing that I couldn't even hear it. The walls cracked just a little bit, but immediately sealed itself up.

I took out some daggers and aimed them at the cracks and threw them. They struck but the wall had already turned back to a smooth gray slab.

"Guys," Lily warned. "Our fire-suits."

I bit back a curse. Lily had a point. Thirty minutes had already passed, and I could feel my suit starting to wear off. We had to do something quick. Before I could try again, Lily stopped me.

"Dude!" she shook my arm. "There's a hand print at the base of the wall! Come on!"

"Oh!" I said. In my excitement to get to the hand print, I sprinted to the wall and tripped over a twig. I was sent flying in hyper-speed headfirst to the wall, and crashed in an undignified way to the ground. I turned around to see Lily and Musilica doubled over, laughing.

"Smooth," Musilica snorted.

"Oh, shut up," I grinned. I pressed my hand to the print and it slid open bit by bit, and soon the entire wall had opened. When it did, the first thing I saw was, what I thought was, a crystal on fire resting on a waist high stone pedestal. I blinked and looked again. The crystal wasn't really on fire, though it looked like it. It was fire-red and translucent, just sitting there.

"I thought it would be harder...This can't be it." I said slowly. "Should I just take it?" I glanced at Musilica and Lily for reassurance. They nodded. I reached out hesitantly and gripped the crystal. Immediately, a blast of...I don't know how to describe the feeling...power, maybe, gusted through me. My eyesight grew sharper. I was aware of the tiny details in the chamber. I felt invincible.

Suddenly, the room began to shake.

"Wha-" Musilica gasped. The wall behind the crystal started cracking...

Then...

...CRACK!!

The wall collapsed and red hot liquid came gushing out, straight at us!

"Ahhh!!!!" We all screamed and started running into a sloping up tunnel, which I had not noticed before. Just as we started running, I felt my fire suit literally melt off. Strangely, I couldn't feel any heat. Lily and Musilica, however, seemed to have felt the intense heat. As we ran for our lives, I felt the priceless jewel, which was the crystal, s-l-l-i-i-i-p-p-p-ing out of my pocket. I stopped and slid back down a few feet to grab it. Just as I grabbed the troublesome crystal, I slipped on some pebbles and, with a scream, fell straight into the glowing, hot yellow-orange lava.

I heard a scream from behind me. With my agility, I grabbed an overhead root and started swinging monkey bar style towards the sound. Then I saw what happened: Kizana was being consumed by the lava. I screamed. There was no way she could stand that heat, even with her fire suit. No time to panic, we have to save her! I tried to hang down and grab her hand, but missed.

"Lily! Make a flying creature out of clay!" I yelled, unsure if she heard me. Then I saw her hands blur in a fury of creating something to save our cousin. I blinked and saw a clay eagle soaring toward the outstretched hand of Kizana. My heart sank. Too late. Kizana had sunk completely. There was absolutely no way she could live this heat. She probably already dead-then Kizana popped her head over the lava.

Lily shrieked and tripped backward. I blinked a few more times. Then, I rushed to Kizana and pulled her out. Strangely, she was completely okay, even her clothes (or things would have gotten awkward). Her daggers and plants were not even in the slightest bit scorched.

"What happened?" Lily asked.

"I dunno," Kizana said. She was grinning. "When I touched the crystal, i felt a surge of power go in me, and then I felt, I dunno, immune to fire. See, when I fell in, I couldn't feel any heat. Then I willed the lava to stop, and it did."

That was when I realized the wall of lava following us had stopped. Just then it became hotter and we felt another tremor. At this moment my claustrophobia kicked in.

A wave of panic hit me like a hammer. You know how it is. My terror and rising fear completely blocked out the fact thay Kizana seemed able to control fire. I needed to get out. If I didn't, I'm sure to die.

Comprehension dawned in Lily and Kizana's eyes. "We need to get Musilica out of here!" Lily yelled to Kizana. "Musilica, close your eyes!"

Kizana raised her hands and willed the heat to stop as well. Lily molded a quick butterfly out of clay to show us the way out. She spoke a word to bring it to life, and that was the last thing I saw before I closed my eyes.

A bit of calm cooled my panic. I imagined myself on a hill, with open space around me-a lot. I took a breath and under Kizana's guidance we started to walk.

Lily was muttering under her breath. I could barely make out the words: "I thought we fell from a chute. Since when was there a slope going upwards? That wasn't here before. I wonder..."

Somewhere in my mind, I understood. Could the slope be a work of, well, magic? Most likely. Just then, I saw light beneath my eyelids. Light! We were almost there. We took a few more steps, and cool, fresh air engulfed us. On instinct, I opened my eyes. I drew in a sharp breath. The volcano we were in had transformed into a cold, snow-capped mountain!

"How did this happen?" Lily stammered.

"Uh..." Kizana sounded equally as confused.

"I'll take out the map stone." I offered. I reached into my pack and took out the crystal. We all leaned in to examine it.

It changed. The first checkpoint, which had been glowing brightfully before, had dimmed. Now the remaining two were left, shining cheerfully. As for us, we had arrived at our second destination, though it was still a bit far off. The three smaller dots were standing maybe a mile or two away from the second destination. Kizana's dot, the flame, red one, was glowing more brightly than ours.

Suddenly, Lily convulsed as though she had been hit.

"Lily, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I...d-don't like the c-c-cold," she stammered. I looked at her in confusion when Kizana looked at me. I couldn't feel the cold. In fact it felt like warmth at home.

"What's wrong? It's wonderful up here!" I said running around and doing a few back flips to relieve my muscles.

"Musilica, you are wearing a t-shirt and shorts. Can't you feel any cold?" Kizana asked curiously, touching Lily and sharing the warmth form the fire crystal. I shook my head. Lily stretched out a shaking hand and took the map stone. The she shivered and dropped it. Quickly, Kizana bent down and caught it.

"It's as cold as ice now. When we were by the volcano, it was hot." she said, trying to work out the prophecy we revieved from what seemed like years ago.

"I'm tired," Kizana announced. That's when I realized how tired I was.

"Sure," I agreed.